Cuban vice president assesses strategic hydraulic investments

We need to optimize the use of water based on agricultural production, Valdes Mesa said on Saturday at the meeting to check the investments in the Central-East Transfer Channel project, in which Deputy Prime Minister Ines Maria Chapman Waugh also participated.

The vice president acknowledged the province’s potential for this kind of construction, the Escambray newspaper reported.

However, he recalled the investment process limitations in the country, as a result of which plans have been restricted due to the US blockade against Cuba.

We have to see all possibilities to make progress in the irrigation infrastructure, make the most efficient use of water and grow in other areas; to the same extent that hydraulic works are recovered and irrigation is extended, food and sugarcane production should increase, Valdes Mesa said.

These hydraulic projects are strategic to support the development of rice, miscellaneous crops, sugarcane and aquacultural production, where the province fulfils its productive and irrigation potentialities, he said.

Sancti Spiritus has important rivers, in addition to the largest man-made reservoir in Cuba, the Zaza dam, with a capacity of 1,000 million cubic meters of water. (Taken from Prensa Latina)